A New Friend
by TacoKing23
Summary: A depressed woman enters the snowy woods for some solitude, but has an unexpected encounter with a strange creature.


Alright, this is more a non-canon tangent of my original stories than a real fanfiction, but the combination of getting dumped on with snow, stories I've read recently, and thinking about old project plans made me think to write this. Because of this, certain details might be a little out of context and confusing, but just bear with it. Spontaneous projects seem to be the most successful ones. This might collect chapters later, but for now, it's a one-shot.

* * *

A girl sat alone in the snow, knees huddled to her chest.

Now, this girl wasn't lost, nor was she particularly bothered by the cold. In fact, she sat there quite contently, wearing nothing more than a thin, blue, hooded sweatshirt and tan cargo pants. Her wolf-like ears, situated on top of her head rather than on the sides, occasionally flicked snow out of her chin-length brown hair, but more because the buildup of the stuff tickled them than because of any discomfort. Despite the rather bitter cold, the girl did not shiver, sitting exposed in the woods in a northern winter.

None of it bothered her, for she was a Hybrid, and her name was Frostwolf.

Frostwolf, more commonly known as Frosty, was an elemental mage, like all members of the incredibly rare Hybrid race. Her element was ice, so all this cold was actually quite comfortable to her. She was also a local hero, using her powers to help people whenever she could. However, she had come to this place to get away from the very people she helped protect. They still liked her and all, but she just couldn't stand to hear what they called her now.

"She-Frosty."

You see, Frosty hadn't always been female. Not long ago, and for her entire life into her early twenties, she had been male. Recently, a disembodied voice that only she seemed to be able to hear had used some power to change her into a girl, seemingly for no other reason than its own amusement. It delighted in embarrassing the poor girl, often teasing her when she was among friends, knowing that she could not help but respond angrily to a voice none of them could hear. It rarely seemed to bother her when she was by herself, however, so to escape the people and the voice, she made her way into the snowy woods to spend some time alone.

She had been here for several days now, enjoying the solitude. Now, however, she was just depressed. Her life had been irrevocably changed, and there was nothing she could do about it. She sat in the snow and mourned the life she had lost. She was ready to cry, and nearly began doing so when she recognized the smell of fear nearby, and felt a small head bump against her back. Surprised, she raised her head from her knees and turned.

A small, blue-furred creature stood behind her on four legs, approximately to the height of her knees. It had a crest-like tuft of darker blue fur on its forehead, from which hung two long protrusions of… fur? Skin? Frosty couldn't tell. She'd have thought them to be its ears, if it didn't have a large pair of them standing out backward, reaching half the length of its body. It had a long, flat, pointed tail with a diamond of more greenish-blue fur at the end, which matched marks of the same color and shape at the ends of its crest-tails and in the middle of its back. It looked at her with large dark eyes, with an oddly expressive face that seemed to show a mixture of fear and sadness.

Frosty stared blankly at the little thing. She couldn't really tell what it wanted. It seemed vaguely fox-like to her though, and the language of foxes was moderately compatible with that of wolves, which Frosty was fluent in, so she decided to ask. She noted the creature was female, so in the barking, yipping language of wolves, she asked her question.

"How goes it with you, little sister?"

The creature, rather than answering, quickly shrank back in fear. Frosty immediately regretted her decision. The poor thing was already clearly afraid of something, and here she was, asking it questions in one of the most aggressive, if polite, languages in the animal kingdom. She looked at apologetically, switching to English and trying again.

"Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. I'm guessing you didn't understand that, huh?"

The animal, on this, stopped backing away. Frosty slowly held her hand out to it.

"I'm sorry, little one, I was just trying to use a language I thought you might understand. I promise, I won't hurt you."

The critter slowly inched its way toward Frosty's outstretched hand, sniffing at it and experimentally licking the tip of one of her fingers. The girl allowed it to do this, not wanting to frighten it further. She shifted her position, carefully turning her whole body toward it and sitting cross-legged in the snow.

"See? You're safe with me. You don't have to be afraid."

At this, it recoiled slightly, its face twisting into what looked like an expression of terrible sorrow. To Frosty's surprise, tears welled up in its eyes, and it suddenly jumped into her lap, nuzzling itself against her. The girl carefully wrapped her arms around the creature, trying to comfort it. To her great surprise, it sadly spoke a single word.

"Glaceon…"

Frosty was quite surprised, to say the least. A few members of her old pack, the wolves she had lived with from ages eight to fourteen, could understand the language spoken by the humans in the area, and one could even growl out a very small handful of mangled English words, but this was different. The creature had spoken clearly, in a very human-sounding voice. Quite a pretty one, she noted offhandedly.

"Glaceon? Is that your name?"

The poor thing continued pressing itself into her chest, nodding slightly. Frosty was surprised again, because this indicated that it could understand English. She wondered how it had managed that. Regardless, she continued to talk to it.

"Are you alright, Glaceon?"

It shook its head. Now the smell of fear was gone from it, but the half-wolf realized that another scent lingered. It was an old scent, but a natural one, the kind of unique odor that every living creature had. It was different than this Glaceon's own scent, but similar, and smelled as if it had once come from Glaceon herself. Frosty's eyes widened in horror. _Oh god, no…  
_

"Glaceon… d-did you used to be something else?"

The fox-like creature nodded, and Frosty's heart dropped in her chest. _That sick bastard… _She stroked its head as comfortingly as she could, though her hand had started to shake.

"Did… did a person do this to you? Maybe someone you heard but couldn't see?"

At this, Glaceon met Frosty's eyes, a confused expression on its face. It shook its head, to Frosty's relief and confusion. _If _he _didn't do it, then what happened to her? _She looked down at the animal, now curled up in her lap.

"It can't be undone, any more than your change can."

Frosty turned her dichromatic eyes upward out of habit, instantly angry. They started to glow, one golden yellow and the other icy blue. That goddamn voice was back again. She hated the bastard. She knew that if she ever found out who that voice belonged to, she would freeze his blood in his veins for what he did to her. Until he had come along and changed her, she hadn't even understood the concept of hate, but now it burned inside her. Conscious of the slightly skittish creature in her lap, she spoke as calmly as she could, the glow leaving her eyes.

"And what do you know about it? She says it wasn't you."

Glaceon perked up at this, confused, but Frosty ignored her for now. The voice answered.

"Well, Glaceon is a Pokemon. Pokemon evolve. It might have come on suddenly or unexpectedly, but her transformation was natural. It's pretty likely that as an Eevee, she got lost in the snow up here, then had to fight off some predator or another. When she beat it, she evolved into a Glaceon."

Frosty didn't know what an Eevee or a Pokemon was, but if the voice wasn't lying, and it rarely did, then the story made some sense. The explanation brought on another question, though.

"I've never heard of a Pokemon. Are they common?"

There was a pause before the voice replied again.

"Not here, they're not. They're not from your world. They're all over the friggin place in their world, though."

_Not from this world? But then… _She looked down at the creature that sat, curled up and comfortable, in her lap.

"How did she get here?"

The voice didn't hesitate, answering more seriously than it almost ever did.

"Fuck if I know. But she's clearly bonded herself to you, and that's kind of a big deal. Hope you're in the market for a loyal, lifelong friend, because you've got one now. That little bugger won't leave you for anything, not till the day she dies."

Startled by the intensity of the normally mischievous voice, Frosty considered what it said. She looked at Glaceon, now falling asleep in her comfortable resting place. Observing how innocent and vulnerable the creature looked, her heart twisted.

"…I can't let her do that. My life is more than a little dangerous, especially with that Aurora girl chasing me around now. Is there any way to give her to someone safer?"

The voice, in a rare display of its otherworldly knowledge, responded.

"Not here. There are ways to transfer ownership, and the associated link, in her own world, but here, you could only break the bond by making her hate you. Or you could try to abandon her. But, gonna be honest here, pretty sure you're too good a person to do either of those things."

The girl's heart twisted further, feeling guilt that she would be subjecting this innocent creature to such a life. She bowed her head when the voice began speaking again.

"However, you don't need to worry too much about it. Pokemon are durable things, quite hard to kill. And, more importantly, they can be ferocious fighters, especially with the powers they all develop. If you train her properly, Glaceon would be more than capable of protecting herself when she grows up. Might even be able you help you in tougher fights. Little young for that now, though."

Frosty's ears twitched at this. She didn't want to force this poor, lost creature to fight her enemies. But it had chosen to be with her for some reason. And if she couldn't give her a less dangerous life, then it would be more irresponsible to try and shelter her than it would be to train her. _Besides, she's like me. We both lost something we can never get back. Who could understand her better than me? _The Hybrid made her decision.

"Fine, I'll do it. I'll help her learn to keep herself as safe as possible."

She could hear the smile in the voice as it said one last thing.

"Good girl."

With that, the odd pressure in her head disappeared, which Frosty always took to mean the owner of the voice had left. As usual, she was grateful to feel it leave, but this time, much unlike every other time, she was also grateful that it had visited in the first place. Glaceon only seemed capable of saying her own name, and she didn't think she'd have gotten all that information any other way. She still vowed to kill the bastard if she met him, but maybe now she'd make it less painful.

She looked down at the sleeping Pokemon once more, then smiled. Very carefully, so as not to wake her, the girl took Glaceon into her arms and slowly climbed to her feet. In a significantly better mood than she had been in days, she turned and began walking back toward the town she had fled before. She knew her friends would be waiting for her when she got back. She couldn't wait to introduce them to the newest addition to their little group. She knew they'd love her.

The girl hurried along, eager to let this new friendship truly begin.

"Come on, little one. Let's go home."


End file.
